Another View: Feds can do more to block Asian carp

The Chicago canals are the highway for carp into the Great Lakes. Instead of $18 billion and decades spent mostly rebuilding Chicago's sewage system, a study says the waterways could be divided in a few years for $3 billion. It’s time to plug the canals.

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By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Daily Telegram - Adrian, MI

By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted Mar. 31, 2014 at 12:15 PM

By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted Mar. 31, 2014 at 12:15 PM

This editorial appeared March 24 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Great Lakes senators are turning up the heat on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over efforts to prevent Asian carp from colonizing the lakes.

In a letter dated March 14 and signed by a bipartisan group of 11 senators, the lawmakers emphasized the “need to implement short-term measures to stop Asian carp from getting into the Great Lakes, and to move aggressively toward a long-term solution.”

The senators are right. Both approaches are needed, including a serious look at rebuilding the natural divide between the lakes and the Mississippi River watershed. Both Wisconsin senators, Republican Ron Johnson and Democrat Tammy Baldwin, signed the letter. Senators from Indiana and Illinois did not sign; their states would be most affected by an effort to close man-made links between the two watersheds via Chicago canals.

Right now, only an electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal about 35 miles from Lake Michigan is preventing these aggressive fish from taking up residence in the lakes. But the electric barrier doesn’t repel all sizes of fish.

The Journal Sentinel’s Dan Egan, who has written extensively on the Great Lakes and the Asian carp menace, reports that one idea proposed in a new Army Corps plan is modification of a navigation lock downstream from Lake Michigan to block migration of species between the basins. There is concern about migration of unwanted species in both directions, including a fish-killing virus that could harm fish farms in the South.

But lock modification isn’t a long-term solution, and some conservationists are worried that if the Army Corps pursues this idea, the agency will not look for a permanent answer. “To move forward with a long-term solution, a phased implementation may be needed,” the senators wrote. “What interim measures could the Corps move forward with that would allow for the most flexibility with a long-term solution?”

The Army Corps’ 10,000-page study released in January looked at a variety of ways to stop the carp. We continue to believe, as do most scientists, that the best way to fix the problem is to rebuild the divide between the two watersheds.

The study said that could cost up to $18 billion and take decades, but a Journal Sentinel analysis of the plan showed that a great deal of that price tag is tied to upgrades to Chicago’s waste and storm water systems that have very little to do with preventing the carp from entering the lake. That includes about $12 billion for new reservoirs, sewer tunnels, water treatment plants and other work. A plan released two years ago by the Great Lakes Commission put the cost of separating the basins at as little as $3 billion and said it would take years — not decades — to complete.

Page 2 of 2 - The carp would create havoc in the Great Lakes and its multi-billion-dollar fishery. The Army Corps should take decisive action to stop them with a long-term plan that will work. We think that has to include plugging the highway that lets them in: the Chicago canals.